Prepare
Opening Prayer
Ask God to help us understand his Word and teach us in Jesus' name.
Read
Scripture Passage
The Sanctity of Blood
1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to Aaron, to his sons, and to all the children of Israel, and say to them, ‘This is the thing which the Lord has commanded, saying: 3 “Whatever man of the house of Israel who kills an ox or lamb or goat in the camp, or who kills it outside the camp, 4 and does not bring it to the door of the tabernacle of meeting to offer an offering to the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord, the guilt of bloodshed shall be imputed to that man. He has shed blood; and that man shall be cut off from among his people, 5 to the end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices which they offer in the open field, that they may bring them to the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, to the priest, and offer them as peace offerings to the Lord. 6 And the priest shall sprinkle the blood on the altar of the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and burn the fat for a sweet aroma to the Lord. 7 They shall no more offer their sacrifices to demons, after whom they have played the harlot. This shall be a statute forever for them throughout their generations.” ’
8 “Also you shall say to them: ‘Whatever man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell among you, who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice, 9 and does not bring it to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, to offer it to the Lord, that man shall be cut off from among his people.
10 ‘And whatever man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell among you, who eats any blood, I will set My face against that person who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people. 11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.’ 12 Therefore I said to the children of Israel, ‘No one among you shall eat blood, nor shall any stranger who dwells among you eat blood.’
13 “Whatever man of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell among you, who hunts and catches any animal or bird that may be eaten, he shall pour out its blood and cover it with dust; 14 for it is the life of all flesh. Its blood sustains its life. Therefore I said to the children of Israel, ‘You shall not eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off.’
15 “And every person who eats what died naturally or what was torn by beasts, whether he is a native of your own country or a stranger, he shall both wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. Then he shall be clean. 16 But if he does not wash them or bathe his body, then he shall bear his guilt.”
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Lev 17:1-16
A — About
What Is This Passage About?
Israel must bring sacrifices to the Lord at the tabernacle rather than offering them to demons, and must not consume blood. God sets blood apart because it carries the creature's life and is given on the altar to make atonement.
B — Best Verse
A Verse That Summarizes the Passage
Leviticus 17:11
Distilled from the devotional exposition; the speaker did not explicitly name a best verse.
No one identifies a best verse in the full transcript. Verse 11 is distilled because it states the passage's central reason for treating blood as sacred: life is in the blood, and God appoints it for atonement.
C — Called or Christ
C — Called to Do & Christ Connection
Value the human life God gives, follow his ways, and above all thank him for cleansing and adopting believers through the blood of Jesus Christ, shed for the forgiveness of sins.
Devotional Study
Transcript of the devotion. Minor transcription errors may remain.
Well, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day you and I, we get together, we have a little bit of coffee. I drinked all my... You drank all your milk already. You even got yourself dressed and did your pigtails. Well, we have a little bit of coffee.
We get into God's Word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. You mean milk? Yep, sometimes you have milk. Well, why don't we have some coffee? We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word. Do you want some coffee? No, I want milk. Oh, well, you already drank all your milk before I even hit record. Alright, let's pray. You ready? God, please help us to understand your word this morning. Please teach us in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, so we are at Leviticus 17. You ready? He's going to talk about blood. Yeah. Okay, here we go.
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron, to his sons, and to all the children of Israel, and say to them, This is the thing which the Lord has commanded. Alright, so who's talking here? Moses. Yep, God's talking to Moses, and Moses is to talk to Aaron, and they're to tell all the people these commands. Not allowed to do them.
Whatever man of the house of Israel who kills an ox or lamb or goat in the camp, or who kills it outside the camp, and does not bring it to the door of the tabernacle of meeting to offer an offering to the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord, the guilt of bloodshed shall be imputed to that man. He has shed blood. And the man shall be cut off from among his people, to the end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices which they offer in the open field, that they may bring them to the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting to the priests, and offer them as peace offerings to the Lord. And the priest shall sprinkle the blood on the altar of the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and burn the fat for a sweet aroma to the Lord. They shall no more offer their sacrifices to demons, after whom they have played the harlot.
This shall be a statute forever for them throughout their generations. All right, so are they allowed to offer sacrifices to demons? Mm-mm. Mm-mm. So they can't go in the field and offer sacrifices to demons. But who can they offer sacrifices to? God. God, that's right. They can offer sacrifices to him. And where would they do that? at the tabernacle.
Daddy, so they couldn't go in the cornfield and get corn? Well, it's not about going in the cornfield and getting corn. Imagine somebody going in the cornfield, taking a lamb, and killing a lamb in the cornfield, and saying, God, I'm offering up this sacrifice to the corn gods. Yeah, is that good?
No. Okay. Verse 8, Also you shall say to them, Whatever man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell among you, who offer a burnt offering or sacrifice, and does not bring it to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, to offer it to the Lord, that man shall be cut off from among his people. So if someone makes a sacrifice and they don't bring it to the Lord at the tabernacle, guess what you're supposed to do? Kill. No, not kill.
See ya Cut off Right remove from the congregation like treat it like you're not part of the family anymore Yeah, that's what they're supposed to do okay, verse 10 and Whatever man of the house of Israel or of the strangers who dwell among you who eats any blood Oh, can you imagine that taking blood from an animal and drinking it?
I will set my face against that person who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. Therefore I said to the children of Israel, no one among you shall eat blood, nor shall any stranger who dwells among you eat blood. Whatever man of the children of Israel, of the strangers who dwells among you...
Well, let's talk about that one first. Are you supposed to be eating or drinking blood? No way, right? That's like what the pagans would do around them. They think that maybe they would get strong or get the life of that animal by eating or drinking its blood. Is that what we're supposed to do? No, no, no. Not the children of Israel. Whatever man of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell among you, who hunts and catches any animal or bird that may be eaten, he shall pour out its blood, and cover it with dust. For it is the life of all flesh. Its blood sustains its life. Therefore I said to the children of Israel, you shall not eat the blood of any flesh. For the life of all flesh is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off.
Alright, so if daddy goes hunting in the field with Bubba or Mr. Kurt and we shoot a deer, are we supposed to be eating it with the blood in it? No. No, right we skin the animal we we hang it up. So it's able to get all the all the Like we feel dress it we get all the Hanging and if it we get all the yucky stuff out, right? So but something red. Yeah, but some people back then would want to keep as much blood inside as they could Why because they thought they would get the spirit of the animal so that they would get strong from it And God says, don't do that, don't be pagans like that. Alright, last verses, ready?
15 and 16. And every person who eats what died naturally, or what was torn by beasts, whether he is a native of your own country or a stranger, he shall both wash his clothes, and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. Then he shall be clean. But if he does not wash, though, or bathe his body, then he shall bear his guilt."
Right? So if you find an animal that's been killed, and in the Old Testament you found that animal, and you didn't know, so you just went ahead and ate it, What do you need to do? You take a bath. Daddy, look. I'm taking apart my finger. Oh, you're taking apart your thumb, yeah. So, what do you think?
Do you think these laws, these commands still apply to us? Do we live in Israel? Do we have a tabernacle? No! no we don't we don't have that anymore so should we should we just throw all this out the window no no you think this is still like something good did you know when daddy was overseas recently when i was out of the country the country i was in that i saw people sacrificing animals yeah there was blood everywhere and that type of culture people might actually like that blood. Yeah, but God says, no, no, no. That blood shows death. Right? That blood is not to be messed with. So if you have blood in you, you will die? Well, if you don't have blood in you, you'll die. Yeah. Okay. You ready to pray?
God, we thank you so much that you have made us clean, that you have adopted us. into your family by Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray that you would please help us to follow in your ways, walk in your paths. Lord, we thank you for the life that you have given us, and we pray that we would value human life. But we thank you most of all that you shed the blood of your own son, Jesus Christ, to forgive us of our sins. Please, Lord, help us to love you and to walk in your ways. In Jesus's name, amen. You want to say goodbye?